Louisiana’s waterways are the state’s most significant geographic features. Swamps teem with wildlife and millions of tons of trade goods flow through the state on the Mississippi River. Outdoorsmen paddle pirogues through bayous overhung with Spanish moss, and land enriched by seasonal flooding produces crops of sugarcane, cotton and rice. You won’t find any mighty peaks in Louisiana, but the mostly level terrain holds its share of geographic wonders.
Bayous
- Bayou Lafourche, about 45 miles southwest of New Orleans, served as the area’s Main Street, providing a means of transportation and communication for early Cajun settlers. Small towns line it for most of its 50-mile length from Thibodeaux to Golden Meadow, and shrimp boats tie up on its banks at night. Chemin-A-Haut State Park overlooks Bayou Bartholomew in north central Louisiana. The name of the park derives from the French for “high road” because a trail used by Native Americans wound along the bluffs. Bayou Teche flows through the center of Breaux Bridge, 50 miles west of Baton Rouge. Established in 1829 by Scholastique Picou Breaux, an Acadian woman, the small town is the site of an annual crawfish festival.
Rivers
- The Mississippi River forms Louisiana’s eastern border until it enters the state about 65 miles northwest of Baton Rouge. Between Baton Rouge and New Orleans, the Great Mississippi River Road follows the river, passing Greek Revival plantation homes, Creole-style houses and sugar cane mills. The Red River enters Louisiana in the state’s northwest corner and empties into the Mississippi River near Simmesport. The city of Shreveport takes its name from Henry Miller Shreve, an engineer who developed a snag boat to remove dead trees from rivers. His removal of the “Great Raft” in the Red River in the 1830s opened the river to commerce. The Atchafalaya River branches from the Red near its confluence with the Mississippi. Surrounding the midsection of the river is the largest swamp wilderness in North America.
Lakes and Bays
- Toledo Bend, the largest man-made lake in the South, stretches along the Louisiana - Texas border. The lake is a favorite of bass fishermen, and site of frequent fishing tournaments. Two state parks on the lake -- North and South Toledo Bend State Parks -- have campgrounds and cabins. Lake Bistineau, in far northwest Louisiana, formed in the early 1800s when a logjam pushed water out of the Red River. A dam was built in 1935, and the lake now covers about 27 square miles. The state park on the lake has camping and cabins, boat launches and a canoe trail. The Mississippi River delta forms the right side of Barataria Bay, south of New Orleans. Designated an estuary of national significance, the bay was a haunt of the pirates Pierre and Jean Lafitte.
Highs and Lows
- Some peak baggers travel from state to state in the U.S., scaling the state’s highest mountain. In Louisiana, this is not so hard to do. Driskill Mountain, south of Arcadia in Bienville Parish, is only 535 feet tall. The trailhead for the hike is at Mount Zion Presbyterian Church on SR 507. A cairn and a register mark the summit a little less than a mile from the church. New Orleans’ elevation averages six feet below sea level because of land subsidence when neighboring swamps were drained to make more room for the expansion of the city. Levees around the city and Lake Pontchartrain create a bowl-like effect.
